Finally, it seems we will get a decent movie rental service here in Norway as well. Microsoft announced that they will start (or more correctly expand) their movie rental service in other countries besides the USA. This means that we will be able to enjoy 1080p movies and series with 5.1 sound in Norway as well through our Xbox.

I have previously been impressed by how easy it is to buy and download digital content through either your Xbox or xbox.com. If the movie rental it is as simple as buying games/game add-ons I am sure it will be a hit. Well, as long as Microsoft is able to get a decent selection of material and as long as the the pricing is right it is going to be a hit.

Microsoft’s movie on demand and other services like Hulu have not been available here in Norway so far. I have until now used Cdon’s bredbåndsfilm a bit but the selection of movies is not yet good enough. The biggest problem with Cdon’s offering though is ironically enough their dependency towards Microsoft. Cdon and other services like SF Anytime do unfortunately require Windows and Internet Explorer.

Another interesting news is Microsofts Games on Demand (browse down a bit). They do not say anything about Norway but it would be really cool to be able to buy Xbox games and download them over the Internet. However, the Xbox’s 20GB disk may be a bit of a problem…